DribbleBot: Dynamic Legged Manipulation in the Wild

Abstract

DribbleBot (Dexterous Ball Manipulation with a Legged Robot) is a legged robotic system that can dribble a soccer ball under the same real-world conditions as humans. We identify key challenges of in-the-wild soccer ball manipulation, including variable ball motion dynamics and perception using body-mounted cameras. To overcome these challenges, we propose a domain and task specification for learning viable soccer dribbling behaviors in simulation that transfer to real fields. Our system provides promising evidence that current legged robots are physically capable and adequately sensorized for varied and dynamic real-world soccer play. Video is available at https://gmargoll.github.io/dribblebot.